1y ago

Biden planning to hit food ‘shrinkflation,’ corporate greed in SOTU

www.politico.com

President Joe Biden is weighing how hard to hammer big food companies over painfully high grocery prices in his upcoming State of the Union Address. But some some aides remain wary of focusing too much on food inflation, given how little power the president has to singlehandedly force down prices.

Biden embraced the concept of “shrinkflation” in a Super Bowl message targeting major snack food corporations — as the president framed it, there are now “fewer chips” in your bag, while companies are “still charging you just as much.”

And the White House has been aggressively testing out the messaging on the airwaves and in internal polling ahead of Biden’s speech, according to two White House officials familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to speak on the issue and were granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. Recent polling circulated within the White House has been favorable to Biden’s push to blast what he’s described on the campaign trail as “corporate greed” driving higher prices across a range of sectors.

41 comments

Stop the Kroger / Albertsons merger if you really want to do something about inflation.
- Stop them? Hmm.
  Where is the nearest gas station to each of their corporate headquarters? This is completely unrelated.
- Ta da.
  https://qz.com/kroger-albertsons-ftc-lawsuit-merger-1851286895
- B but we need to compete with Walmart and Amazon
- What does this have to do with the inflation?
  
  Less competition in the grocery space means higher grocery prices. Then there’s all the layoffs and store closings that come along with megamergers.
Around 2004 I could fill a standard grocery cart for around $100, just yesterday I barely needed 2 paper bags to carry what I purchased and it was $90. I don't understand how anyone with rent or a mortgage can afford to live anymore.
- I don't understand how anyone with rent or a mortgage can afford to live anymore.
  You ever see that art installation of the robot which is leaking oil, but continuously tries to squeegee the oil back in until it eventually shuts down?
  
  Assuming it isn't a different piece I haven't heard of, it's called "Can't Help Myself" and it isn't squeegeeing it's own oil or hydraulic fluid back. It was shut down by the artists (though it would have stalled out on its own at some point it was definitely wearing down).
  For anyone interested here is a vid talking about the unhinged artists and the robot piece:
  https://youtu.be/vSnvVuKg6d8?si=5G2fh8vW-zY9ouJH
- Shit has been going on for decades. 20 years ago elmontery(spelling? Whatever) was normally priced at $2.99 for a 10 pack. Now it's $6 for an 8 pack.
  Also, pretty much every frozen pizza has shrunk. Tostinos pizzas used to be close to 13oz and the cost like 89 cents. Now they're about 10.5oz and they're $1.89. Both these changes in size happened over a decade ago. There's a lot more, but over the last few years it's been accelerating like mad.
- buy meat for under $1 a pound
  Does this actually exist?
  
  One of the best ways to stretch your grocery budget is to buy ingredients as whole as possible and then process them at home as much as possible. Especially vegetables.
Here's a hint Joe, shrinkflation is not the problem.
That money comes from workers pockets, and the economy going up only benefits the already rich.
- This type of fake inflation is driven by those in the 1-0.1%. No stopping it doesn't treat the underlying problem but treating symptoms is still better than nothing.
  
  It's performative, designed to lull voters into a sense that he is addressing their concerns and fighting for them when in reality he's picked the lowest hanging, least effort fruit to tackle when he could be addressing the actual issue.
  It's dangerous, because people go "Oh look he's trying to fix things" yet things continue to get worse because those root causes are not being looked at, leading to disillusionment with the Democrats and that only benefits Republicans.
- Sounds like something a dog-faced pony soldier would say, pal!
Recent polling circulated within the White House has been favorable to Biden’s push to blast what he’s described on the campaign trail as “corporate greed” driving higher prices across a range of sectors.
Finally. Hopefully he brings more than finger wagging.
- It literally says in the summary that he's hesitant to discuss it too much because it's not something he has direct control over.
  The bully pulpit is what he's got for now and I'm glad he's using it, but the danger is that he looks like a feckless old man when nothing changes.
  
  At this point I don’t expect my government to do anything, just make nice sounds.
- That's hoping for a lot from any given democrat. Feigned helplessness is their bread and butter.
I've been starting to wonder... Like I haven't checked myself, but our fast food places updating the calories, because they're patties and stuff like that are sure as hell shrinking.
Maybe a quarter pounder is still a quarter pounder, but a McDouble sure as hell feels smaller.
- I went to BK a few months ago from being too busy and on the road all day. I hadn't gone in since 2019 when the pandemic started. I got 2 whopper jr's and I swear they used the $1.00 menu burgers because 1/3 of the bun had nothing at all on them. You had to eat a lot of bare bread to get to the patty. I was still hungry and had to go home and make some real food. I used to go there and get 2 of them, fries and a drink and was full.
- I remember a few years back Jackobox raised the prices of their tacos above $1. They dressed them up all fancy, used better ingredients, and every time I got some the employees were like "we decided to improve the quality and so they're more expensive now because they're higher quality". Few weeks later and they kept the price but reverted to their original recipe and presentation. Now that the $1 barrier is broken they keep steadily going up in price. Pro tip though if you ever need a thousand calories for cheap and have a wrought iron stomach get the tacos and ask them to put nacho cheese in it. They usually dgaf and sometimes it comes out more cheese than taco
Sweet jeebers, is Biden really dumb enough to use the State of the Union Address — biggest Presidential bully pulpit in an election year — to complain about shrinkflation?
- He needs better people around him if this is his move. As Jon Stewart said "fire everyone"
- Yes
"Shrinkflation" seems a little esoteric to be a main point, but everyone gets "corporate greed". I assume they're message testing is either going to figure that out or contradict my assumption though.
There's only one way to stop this shit, and that's to stop buying shit.
- Good luck with that
  
  Yeah, I've grown particularly fond of eating, kind of a hard habit to kick.

41 comments